The following two coagulated food products made from brown algae have been known heretofore:
(1) a coagulated food product prepared by dissolving finely divided wakame or other brown algae in sodium citrate etc., removing (by filtration) an undissolved matter to obtain a viscous liquid, seasoning and coagulating said viscous liquid with calcium chloride etc. (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 109975 8/1978), and
(2) a coagulated food product prepared by entirely liquefying with sodium citrate etc. each of the two kinds of brown algae, i.e. makombu (Laminaria japonica) and wakame, or makombu and hondawara (Sargassum fulvellum), into a solution or a viscous liquid, mixing the obtained solutions or viscous liquids, coagulating the mixture with calcium chloride etc. (see Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 99179 / 1982)
These products have been developed to overcome difficulties encountered in the processing of brown algae, which is attributable to a strongly bonded structure formed between cellulose and hemicellulose, the cell-forming substances of brown algae. The application of brown algae as processed food has been limited due to these difficulties, though brown algae are relished as tasty and healthy food because of its intrinsic perfume, large amounts of relishable ingredients, and minerals contained therein.
Under these circumtances, the coagulated food products made from brown algae by the methods described above are excellent examples of the broadened application of brown algae which have been conventionally applied only as tsukudani or cooked seaweed, by seasoning or other treatments.
However, disadvantages of these coagulated food products are loss of the intrinsic perfume of brown algae and deterioration in flavor and relish, due to the escape of the relishable ingredients and extracts of brown algae when it is leached with water after coagulation, because most part of the starting brown algae material is preliminarily liquefied into a solution or a viscous liquid.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to overcome these disadvantages of the conventional coagulated food products made from brown algae, and to provide a coagulated food product in which the intrinsic flavor and relish of brown algae are retained.